Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Homeless Dreams

After resigning from Souls Harbour Rescue Mission in Regina, but before moving to Halifax to start a new Mission, I had a dream.

I was at a family reunion, visiting with relatives, when for some reason I got offended at my family.  I walked out, determined not to give them the satisfaction of forgiving them.  So I wandered for years in bitterness and loneliness, eventually ending up destitute and sick.  I wandered, scrounging for food but turning into a walking, filthy skeleton.  One day I found myself collapsing in someones back lane from cold and hunger.  There was a piece of discarded food, half rotten in my hand but a bird came and snatched it away.  I cursed the bird and lay down to die.  But I awoke, freezing and tormented by hunger pains.  I got myself on my wobbly feet.  Just then, in the dawning light, I saw a man getting in his car to go to work. 

In desperation I tried to run and call out to him.  Suddenly the car stopped, he backed up and got out.  "Do you need something to eat?" he said.  I nodded, I'd never been so hungry in my life.  He left me sitting on the porch steps while he went inside.  After a few minutes he brought out a sandwich, a pair of clean, warm socks, and a candle.   As I ate he lit the candle and the warmth of it's light and his love hit me and i started to weep.  For some reason he said "I love the sound of a pastors voice in a church, don't you?"  Then and there, in this alternate universe of dreams where I had become a homeless, bitter man, I knew God had reached out to me through this man, fed me, softened my heart and turned me back towards my faith and my family. 


That's it.  Interpretation is a gift, but not really needed for this one.